“So you’re a gamekeeper! Oh, you’re quite right! That sort of game is worth a man’s while, eh, what? The test of a woman is when you pinch her bottom. You can tell just by the feel of her bottom if she’s going to come up all right. Ha-Ha! I envy you, my boy. How old are you?”

“Thirty-nine.”

The knight lifted his eyebrows.

“As much as that! Well, you’ve another good twenty years, by the look of you. Oh, gamekeeper or not, you’re a good cock. I can see that with one eye shut. Not like that blasted Clifford! A lily-livered hound with never a fuck in him, never had. I like you, my boy. I’ll bet you’ve a good cod on you; oh, you’re a bantam, I can see that. You’re a fighter. Gamekeeper! Ha-ha, by crikey, I wouldn’t trust my game to you! But look here, seriously, what are we going to do about it? The world’s full of blasted old women.”